I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to cleaning devices and, more particularly, to a cleaning device for cleaning the paint spray tip of a spray gun.
II. Description of Related Art
Industrial spray painting equipment is widely used throughout the industry in many different applications. For example, robots manipulate paint spray guns in the automotive industry in order to paint automotive vehicles as well as components for those vehicles.
In many applications it is desirable, indeed oftentimes required, to clean the spray tip of the paint sprayer between spraying operations. Otherwise, accumulated paint on the spray tip for the paint sprayers can result in paint drip, uneven paint spray, as well as other aesthetic defects. When this happens, it is oftentimes necessary to completely remove the paint sprayed on the article and then repaint the article. This, however, is costly and time consuming.
There have, however, been previously known devices for cleaning the spray tips of paint sprayers of the type manipulated by robots. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,467,634 to Jessup, entitled “No Contact Spray Apparatus Cleaning Device”, discloses a non-contact device for cleaning the spray tip of a robotic paint sprayer. In this previously known device, the paint spray tip is inserted through an opening in the top of a housing and sprayed with a solvent for the paint. After spraying, drier air is discharged on the paint spray tip in order to dry the paint spray tip. In addition, downdraft nozzles contained within the housing create a downdraft or a partial vacuum within the housing to draw air flow down through the opening in the top of the housing and across the paint spray tip.
These previously known devices for non-contact cleaning the paint spray tip of a spray gun have proven entirely adequate when used with solvent-based paints. For such solvent-based paints, the drier air flow has proven more than satisfactory for completely drying the paint spray tip after cleaning by the solvent.
However, due to government regulations as well as other concerns, many industries have shifted from solvent-based paints to water-based paints. With these previously known devices for non-contact cleaning of the paint spray tip of the spray gun, the spray tips are oftentimes not adequately dried upon removal from the device. While adequate drying of the paint spray tip may be achieved by increasing the cycle time for the non-contact cleaning device, such increased cycle time unacceptably increases the cycle time of the overall painting operation. This, in turn, increases the overall cost of the painting operation.